bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Meredith Chen

The 2024 Paris Olympics star next week with some 10,500 athletes competing in 329 events.
And among the national flags and anthems of the 206 regions represented, one team stands out for its powerful message: the refugee team.
Appearing at the Olympic Games for the third time and featuring a record 36 athletes from 11 countries, competing across 12 sports, the delegation represents more than 110 million forcibly displaced people worldwide and aims to demonstrate that refugees are an enrichment to society.
So, as they prepare to showcase their talents in the French capital, here is a look at how this inspirational team came to be.
A symbol of hope
The team first appeared at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to “act as a symbol of hope for refugees worldwide and bring global attention to the magnitude of the refugee crisis when they take part in the Olympic Games”.
Since then, as part of its commitment to aiding potential elite athletes affected by the worldwide refugee crisis, the International Olympic Committee asked National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to identify those with the potential to reach the Games.
Athletes would receive funding from the Olympic Solidarity programme to assist with their preparations and qualification efforts.
Of 43 athletes eligible, 10 were selected for the first IOC Refugee Olympic Team in Brazil, with members originally from Ethiopia, South Sudan, Syria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Five years later in Tokyo that number rose to 29 and the name of the squad was changed to Equipe Olympique des Refugies (EOR), while an additional seven athletes will compete in Paris, hosted by 15 NOCs.
Though results improved in Tokyo, the team is still searching for that elusive first medal. Three years ago, Kimia Alizadeh narrowly missed out on bronze medal after three impressive wins in the women’s taekwondo tournament under the 57kg division.
While her fellow Iranian, Hamoon Derafshipour, finished fifth in the men’s kumite under 67kg class.

What changes have been made?
For the first time, the EOR will compete under its own emblem, a unifying symbol bringing together diverse athletes and giving the team its own identity.
The emblem features a heart at its centre, originating from the Olympic Refuge Foundation logo, symbolising the belonging the team hopes to inspire and that athletes and lost refugees have found through sport.
The heart is surrounded by arrows, which were designed to represent the collective experience of the journeys and resilience shared by team members coming from various parts of the world.
“Having our own emblem creates a sense of belonging, and empowers us to also stand for the population of more than 100 million people who share this same experience,” Masomah Ali Zada, the team chef de mission, said. “I cannot wait to wear it proudly.”
The team used to march and compete under the Olympic flag and with the Olympic anthem, and went second to last with at the opening ceremony of Rio 2016, right ahead of the host nation which marched in last. At the Tokyo Games, the EOR came in second position, immediately after Greece, the nation of the ancient and first modern Olympic Games.
Another marked departure from previous versions of the team was the appointment of two members of the EOR, Masomah Ali Zada and Cyrille Tchatchet II as team officials.
Following on from Tegla Loroupe, the renowned Kenyan female long-distance runner, who led the team in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, Masomah, who represented the EOR in women’s road cycling in Japan, was named chef de mission last year.
The Afghanistan native had to flee her home twice, first to Iran, where she spent her early years in exile and discovered cycling. She returned to Kabul for high school and university, studying sport, and joined the national cycling team, before her family left Afghanistan in 2016 and claimed asylum in France.
Cameroon-born British weightlifter Cyrille Tchatchet II was named welfare officer for the EOR. The 28-year-old moved to the United Kingdom in 2014, after defecting from the Cameroonian team that year during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Who is on the team this year?
A total of 23 men and 13 women will compete across a variety of sports in Paris.
They hail originally from Afghanistan, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cuba, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela, and are hosted by 15 different NOCs.
For some, including sprinter Dorian Keletela, shooter Luna Solomon, canoeist Saeid Fazloula, and judoka Muna Dahouk, the Paris Games will be the second opportunity to strive for a position on the podium.
Manizha Talash will be competing in the new Olympic sport of breaking. Talash left Afghanistan shortly after the Taliban regained control in August 2021. She spent a year in Pakistan before she was granted refugee status in Spain, where she has lived and trained for the past two years.
The team also includes Tokyo Olympic canoe gold medallist Fernando Jorge, who is now based in the US. He left his native Cuba in 2022 and settled in Mexico, before moving to Florida and trains daily in a canal near his home. The Paris Games will be his first time competing as a member of the EOR and he is considered a strong candidate to clinch the team’s first medal.
Another promising candidate is Iranian kayak paddler Saman Soltani, who won silver at the Asian Championships in 2018. In 2022, her journey took an unexpected turn when she sought asylum in Austria.
Why is the team significant?
The fact dozens of refugees are competing in the Olympic Games upends a fundamental feature of the event, which for more than a century blended patriotism into the fabric of the games.
In addition to competing for the goal of “Faster, Higher, Stronger”, the point, rather, is to be there.
“The refugee Olympic athletes were some of the stars of these Olympic Games,” said Thomas Bach, president of the IOC. “They were stars in a way that they demonstrated the best of human beings; they demonstrated determination; they demonstrated what you can achieve if you want to.
“They also demonstrated that they are not simply refugees but that they are human beings; they are athletes who are competing with the athletes of the other 206 National Olympic Committees on an equal playing field.”
Jojo Ferris, head of the Olympic Refuge Foundation, said the inclusion of athletes in the Games could also “change that rhetoric, change the way the public and often times the media are portraying refugees”.


Olympics 2028: IOC reveals new swimming, table tennis, golf, athletics events for LA

Hong Kong Sevens: France eye first title, and why Australia are banking on Chinese proverb

Paris boxing gender row was product of Russian fake news

Who is Lester Holt’s replacement, Tom Llamas, the journalist taking over from the long-time NBC Nightly News host? The first Latino to present the show has reported on Trump, Israel and the Olympics

Paris 2024 Olympic Games

Paris Olympics Refugee Team: who competes, when did it start, how many medals have they won

An Olympic gold medallist for his native Cuba, Fernando Dayan Jorge will compete in canoe sprint for the Refugee Olympic Team. Photo: AP

Masomah Ali Zada, centre, the first Afghan cyclist to participate in the Olympic Games as a member of the World Refugee Team. Photo: AFP

Wrestler Iman Mahdavi, originally from Iran, will compete in Paris as part of the refugee team. Photo: AP

Hong Kong Olympian Jason Ng taking entourage bigger than some countries’ squads to Paris

Jason Ng will have more relatives in Paris than many nations have athletes. Photo: Instagram/jason_ng_tai_long

Jason Ng (left) training in Switzerland with his teammates ahead of the Games. Photo: Instagram/jason_ng_tai_long

Ng will be the third men’s triathlete from the city to compete at the Olympics. Photo: Instagram/jason_ng_tai_long

China’s Paris Olympics team: twice as many women as men, youngest is skateboarder Zheng

Zhang Yufei, pictured with her 200 metres butterfly gold medal at the Tokyo Games, will swim again in Paris. Photo: AP

Skateboarder Zheng Haohao competes in the Olympic qualifier series in Budapest in June. Photo: Xinhua

China’s Wang Shun, one of the swimmers implicated in the TMZ story, is in China’s squad for Paris. Photo: AFP

Sport

Paris Olympics 2024

Explainers

Other Sport

Appearing at the Games for the third time, the team represents more than 110 million forcibly displaced people worldwide


Appearing at the Games for the third time after Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, the team represents more than 110 million forcibly displaced people worldwide.


Provide background, definition and detail of a specific topic, helping the reader understand how something works or what has happened in the past.  (Eg. What is Nafta? US and Mexico are on the verge of revising trade deal.)


Explainer

Explainer | Paris Olympics Refugee Team: who competes, when did it start, how many medals have they won

Appearing at the Games for the third time, the team represents more than 110 million forcibly displaced people worldwide

A symbol of hope